From Stu in the USA Office
May 7, 2010
On the 5th our team managed to reach camp 2 at 6700m and after a cold night took a load up to the Makalu La at 7400m and descended back to C2 for the night. With serious winds and cold predicted for at least the next 3-4 days our team will be descending to BC to eat, rest and prepare for a weather window allowing them to be high up again. This wind is affecting every major peak in the area with teams on Everest and Cho Oyu all heading down and avoiding the high camps.
We had not heard at our normal time yesterday from Fabrizio and he called early in the morning today (Makalu time) to let us know all was well. In spite of carrying the batteries inside his outfit they got so cold they would not function and it was after sleeping in the sleeping bag they had warmed up enough again to use them....very cold indeed up there!
Quite consistently between -17°C and -25°C according to Meteotest. With winds on the summit heading towards 90-100km/hr on monday this will be no place for a human! Our team will enjoy mother natures best efforts to scour the rock clean from the comforts of BC!
Here is Fabrizio's latest audio dispatch recounting the day's effort on the 6th!
Listen to all the Field Touring Alpine Audio Dispatches at gabcast
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